MORGAN COUNTY - The Rocky Mount Sewer District has received the go ahead to move on to the next stage in development of a sewage treatment plant. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has granted it permits to allow companies to give bids for construction.

In its analysis, the department found that construction of a plant in this area would not result in any significant adverse impacts on Lick Branch Cove. The department cited that a treatment plant would improve the water quality.

The sewage treatment plant would be constructed on Y-13, one mile from Lick Branch Cove. In its first phase, the system will serve about 260 customers.

The plant planned for the area is known as an extended aeration system. This means the plant will use air mixed with micro organisms to treat raw sewage to a level that is safe to reenter the environment. It then uses ultraviolent light to disinfect the effluent that will drain into a nearby creek.

But some are worried about the creek and this discharge emptying into Lick Branch Cove.

"I support the idea of the sewer system. We just think there's a better place to discharge it. We are trying to clean up the cove. We don't think putting the water back into the cove is a good idea for the environtment," Richard White said, a member of the Lick Branch Cove Association.

However, engineer Jared Wheaton of Schultz Surveying and Engineering said the purpose of the system is public safety.

"The area that we are surveying with this treatment plant, it has a lot of septic systems that are in really bad shape. Some of these septic tanks are leaking into the lake with raw sewage.So what the goal is for the project is to take that, treat it and discharge it into the environment in a safe condition," Wheaton said.

Rocky Mount Sewer District must break ground before June 30 in order to keep the funding for the project.